Smallville: Kristen Kreuk Not Returning; Michael Rosenbaum Still A Possibility

As Smallville enters into the last half of its tenth and final season this month, fans of the series continue to wonder what former cast members from Smallville’s decade-long run will be returning to reprise their roles and help Clark fulfill his destiny of becoming Superman.

While Lana Lang has undoubtedly played a major part in Clark’s life, it has been officially announced that Kristen Kreuk will not be returning to the series in any form. Depending on what your feelings are regarding the character of Lana Lang, this announcement will prove to be either a positive or negative element of Smallville’s final season.

Even though it can be said that Lana’s continuous involvement in the numerous seasonal story-arcs considerably convoluted the already dragging storylines, one can’t deny that Lana received one of the worst character wrap-ups in the series history. The notion of a Kryptonite infection, while incredibly intriguing, was poorly executed and served no other purpose than to quickly write Lana off of the series.

In the same breath, one could say that Lana deserves a more complete resolution, but completely acknowledge the fact that her return would almost certainly derail this season’s almost perfect execution of storytelling. Fortunately, there is one character whose return would only help the series' current seasonal progression. That character is, of course, Lex Luthor.

Despite the intent of Smallvilleproducers to bring Michael Rosenbaum back to the series, there hasn’t been word of any movement, one way or the other. Even though the status of Rosenbaum possibly returning is officially still the same, Tom Welling and the rest of the Smallville producers have said that they’re “cautiously optimistic” that Rosenbaum will return as the tyrant Lex Luthor.

While “cautiously optimistic” is not even close to being a confirmation, this specific wording suggests that there may be some positive movement in bringing Rosenbaum back. Although, with Rosenbaum’s SyFy series Saved by Zeroes still in development and his reoccurring role on Christian Slater’s new Fox series Breaking In, scheduling may be tricky. That being said, I’m "cautiously optimistic" that they’ll be able to make this work.

Even if scheduling conflicts and salary negotiations may be at the heart of solidifying Rosenbaum’s return, Smallville producers don’t really have any choice but to get him back by any means necessary. Throughout Smallville’s final season, one of the main storylines has involved Lex Luthor. Although they haven't yet secured Rosenbaum’s return, the showrunners have spent a lot of time hinting at Lex Luthor’s official return.